Sandra Hüller to Play Wolfgang Herrndorf in Maria Schrader's 'Arbeit und Struktur'
Sandra Hüller will play the German writer Wolfgang Herrndorf in a new screen adaptation of Arbeit und Struktur (Work and Structure), directed by Maria Schrader (The Hollywood Reporter).
The role is a gender-swapped one. Hüller, who won the best acting honour at the Berlin film festival for her performance in Markus Schleinzer's Rose, takes on a figure who is male, suicidal and prone to hallucination in the source text.
Herrndorf's memoir began as a blog. Diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour in 2010, the writer and artist started documenting his daily life with unflinching detail. The book was published posthumously by Rowohlt in 2013 and became a literary phenomenon in Germany.
Schrader is adapting the book for the screen together with Jan Schomburg. Komplizen Film will produce alongside France's Haut et Court, with Studiocanal and German public broadcaster ZDF also on board. Studiocanal is handling world sales — the international distribution rights that bring a finished film to buyers in territories the producers do not release themselves — and will release the film directly in Germany, France and Italy in 2028.
Principal photography is set to begin in early 2027.
What makes the project stand out is the pairing at its centre. Schrader, whose credits include the Emmy-winning Unorthodox, has built a reputation for adaptations that respect their source while finding a cinematic language of their own. Hüller, since her international breakthrough in Anatomy of a Fall, has shown a willingness to take on roles that resist easy categorisation. Playing a real, deceased male author across an autobiographical text about dying is about as far from easy categorisation as a role gets.
The film's 2028 release window places it on the calendar well ahead of the usual festival-to-market cycle, meaning buyers and programmers will likely get their first look in late 2027.
